Comments on: In Silicon Valley, Great Power but No Responsibility

By: Colin Watson

Colin Watson — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:57:53 +0000

My experience – and I’ll concede that this is probably skewed because I work at a free software company, and even before that I was working alongside free software types – is that the engineers in a company are the ones who spend most time thinking about ethical issues. Without evidence, I’d guess that this may be because the process of making a buck is often (not always, of course!) in tension with ethics, and good software companies separate at least some of their engineers from the more commercial side of their operations so that the engineers can focus on engineering. This means that the engineers are often the people who end up saying “hang on a minute, we need to think about this”.

I think it’s important here to separate the thinking of people running technology companies from the engineers on the ground writing the code. It’s far from obvious that any given feature you see is driven by the latter rather than the former.

By: Arvind Narayanan

Arvind Narayanan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:07:02 +0000

I assume that’s from Jurassic Park. The question of ethicality of inventions with destructive potential is very old; that’s not quite what I wanted to discuss in this essay. Internet technology is different from nukes or Jurassic Park in at least three ways: 1. It’s obvious that broadly, the social impact has been hugely positive. No one is arguing that we should uninvent anything. 2. The inventors now have their hands on the switch, so the old social processes for decisionmaking don’t quite apply anymore. 3. The scale of impact is higher than ever before.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:58:19 +0000

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lm0ume20Nc1qgzbvvo1_500.jpg

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:56:15 +0000

Actually, I think that to shirk ethical questions is to be unethical.

That said, who holds greater power—one who has absolute power over a Like button, or one who destroys an economy that can significantly empower or endanger the lives of a million?

Techies are definitely shirking ethical questions, but they have a long way to go before they can do as much damage as bankers, stockbrokers, the government, …

By: Amar

Amar — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:51:30 +0000

Berkman recently had a symposium that addressed a few of these questions — maybe of interest — http://www.hyperpublic.org/schedule/

By: Benlog » with great power…

Benlog » with great power… — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:31:55 +0000

[...] to read it, because it usually packs a particularly high signal to noise ratio. His latest post In Silicon Valley, Great Power but No Responsibility, is awesome: We’re at a unique time in history in terms of technologists having so much direct [...]

By: Arvind Narayanan

Arvind Narayanan — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:01:38 +0000

Brian,

Note that I’m not calling software developers unethical; I’m saying that we shirk ethical questions, which is different.

The comparison between developers and the police/courts etc. isn’t so simple because of scale. Who holds greater power—one who has absolute power over a single person, or one who releases a feature that can significantly empower or endanger the lives of a million?

Our brains are ill-equipped to consider questions like these; indeed, that’s probably why the Like button feels like a frivolous thing to be talking about, even after looking at an example of what it’s being used for. But that’s all the more reason why we need some sort of moral calculus.

By: Brian Slesinsky

Brian Slesinsky — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:45:03 +0000

The implemention of a “like” button does have consequences and we do have a responsibility for that. However, I think it has to be put into perspective – it hardly compares to the amount of power over people’s lives held by the police, the courts, the health industry, or the financial industry. While software engineers aren’t used to holding power, I would say we’re a relatively ethical bunch compared to, say, stockbrokers or bankers.

By: Arvind Narayanan

Arvind Narayanan — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:34:41 +0000

The bit about the ring is fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

By: Neil Kandalgaonkar

Neil Kandalgaonkar — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:36:57 +0000

In any case, let’s not get distracted by copyright issues — I think the blog post was about more substantial harms, to personal privacy especially. It is clear that some of the Valley’s biggest success stories have a very cavalier attitude there. Facebook’s motto is “move fast and break things”. Facebook has shown that they will do anything and everything to usher us into the future where advertisers know more about us than our best friends.

In Canada, there is a tradition of giving newly graduated engineers an iron ring. It’s made from the remains of a bridge that collapsed. Something to think about as you design the next building or vehicle. Would that we had a similar ethical culture.